When Gerald Hinkley decided on a change of scenery for his health care practice, small and regional firms didn’t make his shortlist. With deals he’s handled for community hospitals and academic medical centers growing bigger and more complicated each year, Hinkley was looking for a big firm with its fingers in everything from government regulations and litigation to corporate transactions and real estate. Hinkley joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman as co-chairman of the health care industry team last January after 15 years at Davis Wright Tremaine.
“The client base hasn’t changed, but the complexity of what they need has really changed,” Hinkley said. “Davis Wright was a great firm, but to maintain my client base I needed to be more full service in California.” Last year, he says, he worked with 42 Pillsbury attorneys from different practice areas — including lawyers from the corporate, litigation, real estate, M&A, pension, tax and regulatory groups. He said he had some access to that variety of expertise at the 425-attorney Davis Wright, but they weren’t in California, the state most of his clients call home. (Hinkley has represented Marin General Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and ValleyCare Health System in Pleasanton, among others.)
